Altered Destiny

The next morning I was awoken from my slumber at the infernal time of 4:30 am, but I knew I had to make sacrifices to get stronger.

"Alright," Virion clapped once we reached the courtyard, "for starters, let's check what affinities you have."

"Hmm." Bringing my arm up, I felt the mana flow with ease as the four elements of nature swirled around it. The fire and water coalesced together in a mist, which was sucked up by a tornado of wind and brought down by a wall of earth.

Virion's jaw fell to the ground, "Q-Quadra-elemental…you're truly a freak of nature kiddo."

I grinned, not at all taking that as an insult, "Thanks."

"Heh, get ready for one hellish training regimen brat."

My grin widened, "Try me old man."

And I won't lie, the sinister grin Virion made, it was intimidating.

True to his words my life became a new kind of hell from that day, with my physical training, etiquette classes, and magic training I had little free time, which I generally used in purifying my core.

But a few days into my new training regimen I felt an immense pain racking through my entire being, as if I had daggers stabbing into every square inch of my body. Instantly my grandfather was at my side, placing his hand over my sternum to check for the cause of the damage.

I felt something tingling in my core, as if it was angry, "Wait, Gramps, mo-"

But I was too late, a blast of black mana threw him away from my core, and helanded in a heap on the ground. I scampered to him, all but forgetting about my pain to see if he was alright. I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to him because of me.

"Gramps, are you okay? Please don't be dead." I panicked, hoping he wasn't injured critically.

He chuckled at me, "I'm not dying that easily brat, although it did hurt a bit." His face turned completely serious in an instant, "Fayden what happened in the six months you were away? Why is it that you have a beast will?"

"Beast will?" I echoed. "What's a beast will?"

He sighed, "Come, I need to explain a few things to you."

I followed him to the living room, following him to the couch as he picked up a piece of paper, "Lets start from the beginning, as you know mana beasts possessed mana cores, same as the three races." Seeing me nod, he continued. "Just as how humans, elves, and dwarves have distinct qualities in their mana cores, so do mana beasts."

He rolled open the paper and drew a chart on it.

Water - Ice

Plant

Earth - Gravity

Magma

Metal

Fire - Lightning

Wind - Sound

"These are the four basic elements and their higher forms. The higher forms—Ice, Metal, Lightning, and Sound—can only be controlled by mages especially adept at a particular basic element, i.e. a deviant. This is where the distinct racial qualities lie…" He wrote down each race as he recited a brief description:

Humans:

"Human mages possess the ability to manipulate all four basic elements and are the only race capable of having deviants that can control the higher form of their adept element. They also have deviants that can even transcend the four basic elements, like healers (emitters), making their mana cores the most diverse."

Elves:

"Elven mages can only manipulate water, wind, and earth, but with much higher affinity. We also have a special trait distinct to our race that allows very pure-blooded mages to control plants. However, elves don't have deviants that can manipulate water, wind, and earth into their higher forms."

Dwarves:

"Dwarven mages can only manipulate earth and fire but, like elves, they possess a much higher affinity to those two elements. Their distinct trait lies in the fact that all dwarves are able to mold and bend metal, while some deviants possess the special ability to manipulate both earth and fire into magma, something even human deviants are not able to do, much less elves. However, they can only manipulate those two basic elements and, like elves, do not possess the ability to control the higher form of the basic elements."

"And I suppose I'm the exception, although I don't understand why elves and dwarves can't use the other elements or deviants. Humans at least should have access to the other deviants, given their access to all 4 elements." I asked while reading his handy info chart.

"Good question. Only elves can manipulate plants, which is the only form of nature that is alive, because of our lineage being highly affinitive to the nurturing elements. Only the dwarf race can manipulate magma and metal because, like us elves, their lineage makes them highly adept at constructing elements."

"Mana beasts are different from the three humanoid races because each species has their own special characteristics. Listing all of them would be endless so I'll give you a simple example. Mages, adventurers or not, are classified: E, D, C, B, A, AA, S, SS class. This classification is the same for mana beasts as well. Take the sonic hawk. They are B-Class beasts that possess incredible speed while in flight. They all have an affinity for wind and sound. These attributes are innate in their mana cores. Regardless of their affinity, if these mana cores are taken out and given to a human or elf mage that specialize in the wind element, their training will go by much faster than just cultivating mana from their surroundings, but that's it."

I impatiently waited as he gulped down a glass of water before continuing.

"…However! When a mana beast reaches A-Class or higher, they have the ability to pass on their 'will', or ability to be more precise, to one person. I called you a beast tamer earlier because you have a mana beast's will in your mana core and from my estimation, not just any will but an S-Class mana beast's will, if not an SS-Class will. I'm only able to sense this because I'm a beast tamer as well, although the beast's will that I tamed was an AA-Class beast, the Shadow Panther."

"So I have one of those?" I deduced, it could come in handy later on.

Virion shook his head, "Your beast will felt less like a will and more like a part of your body. And I don't think it can even be classified as a SSS class."

'Holy shit, just how strong was Noctis?'

"It's that strong? Wait, rewind to the first part again?" I shook my head, what did he mean by that?

"Normally a beast will resides inside the user's core, but in your case it's spread all across your body with a large amount of it located in your core." He explained, "Now, I need you to explain what exactly happened to you?"

I sighed, "Alright, but could you please keep it from mom and dad, I don't want to worry them too much."

Virion narrowed his eyes at me, "Alright, go ahead."

And so I explained what happened, telling him the entire truth. How I had an irresistible gut feeling to go to the teleportation gate, how it malfunctioned and sent me to Noctis who taught me how to amass mana while moving and lastly the moment of my awakening, when his beast will fundamentally altered my body and forced the fragments of my core together.

"Fascinating," Virion whispered, "Something like that has never happened before. You might just be a one of a kind mage. The kind of effects your awakening circumstances would have are limitless."

I nodded solemnly, "And I'm glad for it, but how do I access this beast will?"

Virion shook his head, "Alright, normally a mage has to assimilate to the will, a process that can take years even but I do not know how your assimilation will occur, hell with what you told me it might have already happened when you awakened."

"But then why would it ache now?" I asked, confused. If I was already assimilated, I shouldn't have such issues.

"There could be a few kinks it's fixing, or it could be the thing the wolf, Noctis if I remember correctly, shot at your core." Virion mused, rubbing his chin.

Scrunching my brows I checked in at the blob attached to my core, like it was feeding from it. It had clearly grown in size. 'I hope whatever this is doesn't affect me too badly.'

Virion stood up, "Alright brat, get some rest, we'll visit Rinia tomorrow."

"But-"

"No buts."

I sighed, accepting my fate.

.

.

.

When I came down the next morning Virion was already waiting for me, a carriage waiting for us outside. Noticing me he got up from the couch, "Come on, we should hurry."

"Just how far does she live?" I exclaimed, it had been four hours since we left but we still haven't reached her place.

"We're almost there."

I withheld a sigh from escaping my lips as I waited for the carriage to stop.

It didn't take much longer to reach our destination after that. We stepped out of the carriage, and I won't lie, I did not expect Elder Rinia to live in such a dainty hut.

Gramps then suddenly walked ahead and began kicking the door, "We're here you old witch, come out!"

I sweatdropped at his antics, 'Leave it to him to do something this absurd."

The door snapped open to show an elderly woman with grey hair which looked like it had been struck by lightning, wrinkled eyes which were strangely mulricolored.

"Took you long enough.", she scowled.

Elder Rinias gaze then fell on me, "You must be Prince Fayden, come in, we haven't got all day."

.

.

.

Grandfather explained to Elder Rinia what I had told him yesterday, surprising even her with the circumstances of my awakening. But hidden within her surprise was fear and worry. Was it that bad?

"Fayden, Rinia is a very special kind of Deviant, a Diviner."

Elder Rinia looked at me, "As a Diviner I can see parts of the future and the past and I know you are special, boy."

My heart skipped a beat, could she know?

"A black shroud hides your future, and I cannot see beyond a certain point, beware boy for whoever is responsible for hiding your fate does not want us to alter it."

"Maybe it's a good future?" I asked hopelessly, knowing very well my future is never good.

Elder Rinia gave me a pitying look, before turning to Virion, "I cannot help you with this Virion, it's beyond my sight."

Virion sighed, "Is there nothing you can do? Any form of advice at all?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot." Rinia shook her head, "Now shoo, back to your training."

Complying with her words, we left the hut and began our journey back to the palace.

________________________

3rd Person POV :

"Something has changed, it was supposed to be like this." Rinia muttered worriedly, the bowl in the center of the table showed a brown haired human boy holding a sword the colour of obsidian in one hand, and of marble in the other.

"He was not supposed to be born this early, neither as an elf." she put her palms on the table, her lips pressed into a thin line.

The water showed two boys, the first one had hair the color of the rich night fading into the crimson of red. The same colour runes adorned his body as he controlled the inky blackness spread around him. The other one had white hair which ended in auburn, golden runes wrapped around his body and he commanded the purple motes of reality to his bidding.

"Someone has tampered with fate, altered it completely." She muttered, "My knowledge is as useful as my fighting prowess now."

The water tried to reflect a face in the stars, but before it could get any coherence, the jar exploded.

"Gah! Damn you!"